[27] In die quidem dominica alia tamen quam dicebat hebdomade celebrabant. Beda, lib. iii. cap. iv.
[28] Augustinus novam religionem docet.....dum ad unius episcopi romani dominatum omnia revocat. (Buchan. lib. v. cap. xxxvi.) Augustine teaches a new religion ... when he reduces all under the dominion of the bishop of Rome alone.
[29] Habere autem solet ipsa insula rectorem semper abbatem presbyterum cujus juri et omnis provincia et ipsi etiam episcopi, ordine inusitato, debeant esse subjecti, juxta exemplum primi doctoris illius qui non episcopus sed presbyter exstitit et monachus. (Beda, Hist. Eccl. iii. cap. iv.) Moreover it was always the custom to have as governor in that island an abbot who is a presbyter, to whose direction the entire province and also the bishops contrary to the usual method are subject, according to the example of their first teacher, who was not a bishop, but a presbyter and monk.
[30] Idem est ergo presbyter qui episcopus, et antequam diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent. ... communi presbyterorum concilio Ecclesiæ gubernabantur. Indifferenter de episcopo quasi de presbytero est loquntus (Paulus) .... sciant episcopi se, magis consuetudine quam dispositionis dominicæ veritate, presbyteris esse majores. (Hieronymus ad Titum, i. 5.) A presbyter accordingly is the same as a bishop, and before that by a suggestion of the devil, party strife entered into religion..... the churches were governed by a common council of presbyters. Paul spake without any distinction between bishops and presbyters..... the bishops know that it is to custom rather than to any actual direction of the Lord that they owe their superiority to presbyters.
[31] Bishop Munter makes this remark in his dissertation On the Ancient British Church, about the primitive identity of bishops and priests, and episcopal consecration. Stud. und Krit. an. 1833.
[32] Natio Scotorum quibus consuetudo peregrinandi jam pæne in naturam conversa est. (Vita S. Galli, Sec. 47.) The nation of the Scots in whom the habit of travelling abroad had already almost become a second nature.
[33] They were called episcopi regionarii because they had no settled diocese.
[34] Antiquo tempore, doctissimi solebant magistri de Hibernia Britanniam, Galliam, Italiam venire, et multos per ecclesias Christi fecisse profectus. (Alcuin, Epp. ccxxi.) In ancient times the most learned teachers were accustomed to come from Ireland to Britain, Gaul, and Italy, and to make numerous journeys among the churches of Christ.
[35] Thierry, in his Hist. de la Conquete de l'Angleterre, makes Columba and Columbanus one personage. Columba preached the Gospel in Scotland about 560, and died in 597; Columbanus preached among the Burgundians in 600, and died in 615.
[36] Ignitum igne Domini desiderium. Mabillon, Acta, p. 9.